Give Grace, Not Face 別忘了以恩待人 8/28/2011
1 Cor. 林前13:5; Luke 路5:27-32
INTRODUCTION
We all have embarrassing尷尬moments. I did so many silly things when I was younger that I try hard to forget them. At one time when I was still in college I went to a drama rehearsal with some campus fellowship brothers and sisters. I attended a Christian college and so we were allowed to have evangelical meeting on the campus. To show off my high jump skill I leaped on to the stage rather than using the stairs on the side. I forgot that my pants were made of thin fabric. Before I knew it my pant was torn at a strategic spot. So for the whole rehearsal I was wearing a cracked pant. I was trying to hide the embarrassing spot but the director kept correcting my posture. How embarrassing that was. For those who are new to our church we observe the communion every fourth Sunday of the month to commemorate the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. For the past few communion Sundays our sermons were derived from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 – the message on love. Today we come to the first virtue mentioned in verse 5 when Paul says that love is not rude. Our Chinese Union Version renders the translation “love does no shy thing.” Paul seems to be saying that if we say we love a person we should not cause him to do anything embarrassing. Is that what Paul was trying to convey? Before we dive into the verse I think it is appropriate for us to read the passage again.
EXPLANATION
NIV and a few other English translations render the word “rude” 粗魯it has a wider meaning that simply just lack of manner. What Paul wants to highlight is that when a Christian treats other people with love he would be sensitive or considerate about their feelings in his speech and action. Commentator William Barclay translates this phrase aptly when he puts it “love does not behave gracelessly有愛心之餘別忘了以恩待人.” Here Paul uses a negative expression to teach us a positive truth. It is like when we teach our children not to forget to look both ways before crossing a road. The emphasis is not on the crossing but on the not to forget part.
How did the believers in the Corinthian church fail to show grace to others? Let me quote 3 more obvious examples in the book of first Corinthians to illustrate. In chapter 6 Paul convicts them of taking brothers to the court in lawsuit. 6:7-8 says “The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.” In chapter 8 Paul describes that some believers who used to be idol worshippers caused others who were weaker in their faith toward meat that had been sacrificed to idols to stumble. 8:10-11 reads “For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.” In chapter 11 Paul scolds the believers because they failed to care for those under-privileged Christians among them at the Lord’s Supper. They enjoyed their big feast while the poor believers among them went home with an empty stomach. 11:21-22 goes like this: For as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?
Through these three incidences Paul reminds us that love does not behave gracelessly. If we say that we love our fellow brothers and sisters we should be ready to care for the needs and feelings of others, and that includes those that are different than us. Sometimes we are too quick to judge others based on the little information we obtained. Someone asked me last week about the tie I worn. I told this person it was given to me by a sister other than my wife. But I quickly added that she bought it at a dollar store because she knew I liked the pattern and my wife knew it. What if I only shared the part of the information that the tie was from a sister other than my wife?
To illustrate the teaching that love does not behave gracelessly further let us consider an episode in Jesus’ earthly ministry. Let us turn to Luke 5:27-32 that we read moments earlier. We shall see in this story about how Jesus deals with different people with grace.
The story unfolds when Jesus calls Levi to be one of His 12 disciples. Levi’s another name is Matthew, who happens to be the author of the gospel of Matthew. Verse 27 tells us that Levi was a tax collector. If the IRS agent is an unpopular profession nowadays it was more so in the first century Jewish society. At that time the Roman government hired Jewish people to be tax collectors to gather tax money from their fellow Jewish kin. Verse 28 records that when Jesus called Levi he immediately left everything to follow Jesus. This is a vivid expression of how true discipleship should be like. When a person accepts Christ as his Lord and Savior he should be ready to turn over the ownership of his life to Jesus and ready to follow Him the rest of his life. Since this is not the main focus of our message today I will not linger on here.
On the next scene we see that Levi held a great feast at his home. He invited many tax collectors and other people to have a banquet. Jesus and the disciples were also among the guests. A logical explanation for the purpose of the feast is that Levi called for a celebration of his new life journey, that he would quit his tax collecting profession and to follow Jesus. In another words Levi would like to use the occasion to share his personal testimonies to the people he knew. We can expect a lot of joy at the scene. The story comes to an interesting twist in verse 30 when the Pharisees and the Scribes grumbled at Jesus’ disciples by saying “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” These two groups of people were the Bible teachers at that time. For those who know a little background you may recall that the Pharisees and the Scribes treated Jesus as their rivalry. They saw Jesus as an eyesore because they felt that Jesus challenged their tradition and revealed their hypocrisy. But most importantly Jesus claimed to be God and the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. That proclamation alone demands death sentence by stoning. Even if you do not know the background I just shared but from the tone of their complaint in the verse you can sense the antagonism. By saying that, these Bible teachers put an equal sign between the tax collectors and the sinners. The criticism implies that the Pharisees and the Scribes would never be present in the feast even if Levi invited them. The question is: why were they there in the first place? I can imagine that these Bible teachers might be following Jesus and His disciples like secret agents to pay attention to where they went and what they did to see if there was anything they could pick on. Have you met people like that? You may have done nine things right but there is no praise. Rather, you are being criticized for the one thing you did not do right. Are you a person like that? By labeling the tax collectors “sinners” the Pharisees and the Scribes rejected 否定the tax collectors altogether. It is safe to conclude that the Pharisees and the Scribes had no love for the tax collectors. They just loved themselves, their fortified tradition and their self-centered bias toward people who were different from them.
1. Accept the Person 接納全人
Having said all that now let us examine how Jesus saw people in comparison. The first thing we can learn from Jesus when we say that love does not behave gracelessly is that He accepted people as they are. I believe in many cultures accepting invitation to attend a feast means accepting the host. After all Jesus did not just go to Levi’s house to eat but to have fellowship with him. If any person has the sole right to judge others’ sins that is Jesus. Did Jesus know what Levi had done in his profession and all the sins he had committed? Of course He did! He is the all-knowing God and He knows the deepest secrets of our hearts. Jesus willingly accepted Levi and his tax collector friends, whom the Pharisees and the Scribes labeled as sinners.
2. Assess the Inside 評估內心
Not only did Jesus accept people as they are, He also assessed people from the inside. When we say that love does not behave gracelessly we have to assess people not from the outside but from the inside. Jesus says in verse 32 that: I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. You may argue: hey Jesus called the tax collectors “sinners” too just like the Pharisees and the Scribes. What is the difference between Jesus and them? A contrasting difference is that the Pharisees and the Scribes rejected those people they labeled sinners altogether; however Jesus called them back to repentance. The Pharisees and the Scribes assessed people from the outside, while Jesus assessed people from their inside. Jesus sees the spiritual need inside people because everyone is born sinner and has to be brought back to His Kingdom.
3. Address the Need 針對需要
Jesus accepted people as they are and He assessed people from their inside. At the same time He also addresses our true need. Jesus told the Pharisees and the Scribes in verse 31 that: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” Jesus is like the best doctor in the sense that He correctly diagnoses our condition and our need then He prescribes the appropriate medicine to cure our disease. The Pharisees and the Scribes believed that they were good and righteous enough and so they rejected Jesus. By comparison Levi admitted his need for a Savior because he understood that he had a spiritual disease deep down inside. Jesus accepted Levi as a person and He assessed his spiritual condition from the inside. Jesus extended His calling to Levi. Levi gratefully received Christ.
We can too easily fall into the same mistake the Pharisees and the Scribes committed. How do you deal with people who are different from you? Before we talk about people outside of our church let us think about the people within our church. How would you deal with your brothers and sisters when they have different opinions? There are 17 members in our Joint Board. I would be lying to you if I say that we always agree on everything. We may have different opinions on how to spend money or how to plan a ministry. When we say that we have to practice not behaving gracelessly it takes a lot of love and patience. When a person’s proposal is rejected he has to accept the result without taking the decision personal. We humbly accept others’ opinion. The goal is to strive to maintain unity in the midst of diversity. What applies to the Joint Board also applies to the coworkers of a fellowship group or any church committee.
What about brothers and sisters in general? When we learn how to treat others without behaving gracelessly we have to be considerate of the different background people have. I always say that our church is a typical middle-class Chinese church in the suburb. Most of us have advanced degrees and well-paid job. Sadly sometimes I heard about comments that some not so well-educated people felt uncomfortable in our church meetings. These uncomfortable feelings may come from other brothers and sisters who unintentionally use some English words when they led Bible study or in their sharing. Some of these people might just left our church and went to another church. In my limited ministry experience I had the opportunity to get in touch with some brothers and sisters or seekers who own or work in a Chinese restaurant. Frankly it took me some adjustment to understand their livelihood and their struggle. But if we believe that our church is a place for people from all walks of life especially for the sake of the gospel we should not behave gracelessly before we can reach out to different people. Very often all it takes is a genuine caring heart to learn about other’s background, listen to their struggles, to pray for them and to provide practical solutions for them. People may have different attire depending on their particular taste or financial conditions; some may be alcoholic, use foul language, and grow up in a single family or cohabitate with their boyfriend or girlfriend. Sometimes when we get into contact with people different from us we may be too quick to judge them because of their behavior and want to separate from them. We may have the “savior” mentality thinking that we should help clean up their acts before anything else. People can easily discern whether we have a greater interest in getting to know them or simply help fix their problems. Our body language may say out loud: let me tell you what kind of sins you have committed and if you want to get saved you have to change this and that first. But our Savior treats us differently. He shows us what real love from God is. The kind of love that does not behave gracelessly. The kind of love that enables Jesus to accept us as we are, to assess the condition from the inside and to address our deepest need by providing a way for us to come back to God the Father. The same kind of love that prompted Jesus to sacrifice Himself on the cross for the sin of the whole mankind. Let us pause for a moment of silent prayer to prepare our hearts to observe the communion as a means to remember His death for us.